Firefox crashing randomly

[Olliemon]

Hi there, I've been having some very substantial issues with Firefox on my PC.
The basic gist is that after a time using the browser, it just closes completely and opens the crash reporter, but the crash reporter does not send the report, and does not report the details of the crash in any way.

When I re-open Firefox and navigate to about:crashes, there are no crashes listed.

The crash always happens, but the amount of time it takes for it to crash is not set - i.e. it may crash within the first 30s after opening, but it is equally likely to crash within 30 minutes of opening.

I have changed my Firefox profile, I have restarted in safe mode, (disabling addons, resetting preferences to default etc) and this makes no difference.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled, I have changed the directory of install, I have deleted the install directory without uninstalling and reinstalled.
I have even tried using the Firefox 15 beta and Aurora alpha, the same issue exactly occurs.

My computer is fully up-to-date with drivers and windows updates, and firefox is fully up-to-date.

I'm basically out of ideas and I'm stuck with using Chrome until then.
No other browser/program demonstrates these properties, so I am doubtful that my PC is to fault, although I of course haven't eliminated that as an issue yet.

[KWierso]

Have you disabled all plugins (Flash, Silverlight, Java, etc?) Does it still crash with all of those disabled?

I know one of Google's homepage doodles was causing many Firefox users to experience crashing, but I don't remember offhand if they sent in crash reports or not.

One other thing to try would be to restart Windows in safe mode and try running Firefox in safe mode with no other programs running.

[malliz]

I see you are using Windows XP so I assume your computer is not new. Have you thought of running a memory check and a Hard Drive scan?

[Olliemon]

Yup, I've disabled all plugins, same issue occurs.
I will try safe mode, but I'm not at home at the moment so I shall have to check later.

Any other ideas?

[Olliemon]

I see you are using Windows XP so I assume your computer is not new. Have you thought of running a memory check and a Hard Drive scan?

Ah sorry I should have said. This is my work PC, not the PC I'm having the issues with.
The PC which has problems is a Windows 7 w/SP1 x64 machine.
It is pretty much brand new.

[dfoulkes]

it just closes completely and opens the crash reporter

That is Firefox crash reporter??? and not Windows crash reporter?

One other thing to try would be to restart Windows in safe mode and try running Firefox in safe mode with no other programs running.

Just to make sure... that was Windows safe-mode and not Firefox safe-mode.

And, what Firewall and AV products do you use?

[Olliemon]

it just closes completely and opens the crash reporter

That is Firefox crash reporter??? and not Windows crash reporter?

One other thing to try would be to restart Windows in safe mode and try running Firefox in safe mode with no other programs running.

Just to make sure... that was Windows safe-mode and not Firefox safe-mode.

And, what Firewall and AV products do you use?

Sorry about taking so long to reply, it has been a busy week so far already.

The crash reporter that opens is the Firefox one, with the little bug icon. Looks pretty much exactly like this: crash reporter image
Safe mode is a dead end because of course the internet doesn't work as network drivers are disabled, and in "Safe Mode with Networking", the same error occurs, with no other programs present.

I'm completely out of ideas.

I use AVG Free Antivirus, and I've used FF and AVG for years together without any issue - including on this very machine, the problem has only recently occurred.

Again, the most baffling thing is that I can't seem to get any kind of correlation between an event/website/time and the browser crashing. It will crash on any website at any time with and without addons/scripts/extensions.

[dfoulkes]

You mentioned that you get no crash data via about:crashes... in Tools/Options and the Advanced - General Tab... do you have the line about Submitting crash rpts active?

AVG may have been on your computer for a long time but this board is plastered with AVG issues... and one problem area that has surfaced is (I think it called) ... safe-searching or browsing... don't use it so I can't remember...

Anyway, check in your AVG settings... disable all AVG bars and options about browsing and see what happens...

And, you could also close Firefox, get into Firewall and AV software and remove all Firefox stuff... once that's done the start Firefox to let those products re-learn about it.

[makaiguy]

Re: AVG

One of the main complaints has been that when you enter a URL in the URL bar and hit Enter, nothing happens, but I think a few other scattered problems have been reported. I don't recall anybody having problems with AVG causing FFox to crash, but I could have missed something.

Two of the services in AVG-free starting with AVG version 8.X seem to be the cause of the problems with FFox. This all may have been fixed in later releases, I don't know, as I've removed these services and continue to use AVG without problems (as this is written, version 2012.0.2197) You can select not to install them when installing AVG, or disable them after the installation.

The services are "Safe Search" (disable via FFox Add-ons | Extensions), and "Link Scanner" (disable via AVG control panel).

[Olliemon]

I have disabled AVG safe search etc already - but I've had incompatibility issues with AVG before, so I am inclined to believe it may still be messing with Firefox.

I think I'll uninstall AVG and replace it with MSE as it is well regarded and lightweight.

I'll also follow your advice about the firewall settings.

Updates to follow, thanks.

[dfoulkes]

Just a FYI... I've had no issues with Avast... it it seems pretty light-weight...
http://www.avast.com/index